


Across The Barricades

by oonaseckar



Category: RENAULT Mary - Works, The Charioteer - Mary Renault
Genre: 2015 UK General Election, Elections, General Election, Injury, M/M, Politics, UK General Election
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-29 11:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3895180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oonaseckar/pseuds/oonaseckar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the Election edition of Question Time.  Ralph is on the podium: someone else is in the audience.  Someone with an axe to grind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across The Barricades

Question Time, Thursday 07/05/2015

“My question is directed to Mr Lanyon. Sir, you had an unfortunate childhood accident to your left hand with some farming equipment: as a matter of public record. There are current proposals to close the local Accident and Emergency Unit – in the seat where you are standing for re-election – such that some critical cases may have to be airlifted to the next county for treatment. Journeys by road to the nearest subsequent A&E may be forty minutes or longer. Local medical authorities – regarding which your party is currently disclaiming all influence or responsibility – have restricted the budget for emergency services. I would like to ask the candidate, do you think you would have retained more than eighty per cent functionality in your hand and been treated in time and with sufficient expertise to have one digit re-attached, if the nearest district general hospital to the site of your accident had been approximately forty minute's drive away?”

The thin, dark-haired young man, standing up in the Question Time audience on the night before Election night, has identified himself as a doctor – a junior consultant, a surgeon. It's so bloody unfair, Ralph fumes internally. These people know full well: they know his history, they know what any reasonable answer would be, and they also know that he's fairly hog-tied by the chain of command and conformity to the party line. What can he possibly say? 

Honesty wins out, just barely, over tomorrow's headlines, and his career prospects whatever the outcome of tomorrow night. “I doubt it very much,” he says coldly, and looks the bastard right in the eye, across the studio. “But then, you'd know that, wouldn't you, Alec?”

**Author's Note:**

> This got a bit more soap-boxy than I intended, and is also longer. It was supposed to be a drabble.
> 
> RenaultX 2015 Election Challenge!


End file.
